1

3 weeks, northern and southern Thailand plus a bunch of Malaysia? Sounds like you'll be spending most of the holiday traveling, especially if you only plan 2 weeks for both Malaysia and southern Thailand.

I would choose 2 of the locations: north, south, or Malaysia and stick to them.

2

With only 3 weeks it seems like a lot of backtracking. Perhaps a better idea might be..
Fly into Bangkok
Fly Bangkok - Chang Mai
Train/Bus back to BKK
Overland down to KL via Cameron Highlands, Georgetown & Langkawi
Fly out of KL

I'm not sure where you are from but it should be pretty easy to get a multi city return flight as above for a little extra money than a return in & out the same city.

2 weeks is still not a lot of time to do that journey though. We did a similar one from Singapore to BKK and it took just under a month, that didn't feel rushed but it may well do in 2 weeks, you'll be spending an awful lof ot time travelling between each destination. I'd count on at least a full day/night to get from place to place which won't be a lot of fun.

3

Is there a flight from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani with a budget airline? You will be traveling a lot, otherwise.

There are promotions out there. Take a look.

4

Thanks all for your input, even as I'm was typing I thought it was too many places to cram in! Is Malaysia as easy and cheap to travel through as Thailand? Might consider missing out the north and going bkk to kl and working our way back up? Thanks for everyone's time and thoughts!

5

Malaysia's cheap and easy to get around. has plenty of bus companies that criss cross the peninsula so never any need to prebook buses.

You could take the train from Bangkok to Butterworth and work your way round from there.

Edited by: westwood